Bright Shimmer and the Seven Kingfishers
by kitten148
Summary: In this re-write of Snow White, a kingdom of birds gains a new ruler who is secretly a vulture. Conflict ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a kingdom of birds called the Sky Sanctuary. Many a creature flocked to the safe haven, escaping beasts and man alike. The Sanctuary was ruled by the just king and queen, Daren, the bronze and Tenya, the silver. Tenya always wished for a daughter with feathers the color of gold, beak the color of the sun, and a crest as proud as a lion's. Eventually, they had this wonderful child, and named her, Bright Shimmer. They loved her and pampered her as she was their only offspring.

One day, sixteen years later, while Tenya was on one of her recruitment trips, they received word that she had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. After months and months of no news of her the royal family decided that they needed a new queen no matter how much they missed the old one.

The wedding was a wondrous affair, and the coronation after, but throught them Bright Shimmer had an uneasy feeling. regrettably her concerns were correct, the new queen was not a royal eagle as they suspected, but an imposter with a magical mirror that changed her appearance to that of a silky black eagle with a high crest and glossy feathers. Grenta was from the buzzard class one of the few species banned from The Sky Sanctuary, the vulture family. Known for stealing, killing, and dark magic, the vultures were the most despised of all feathered creatures. Nearly all birds went out of their way to avoid vultures.

And now The Sky Sanctuary was ruled by one.


	2. Chapter 2

Every day Grenta would ask her magic mirror a question, the same question every time. She would say,

Mirror mirror on the wall

Tell me now or you shall fall,

Whose feathers fairest of them all.

And always her mirror would answer her,

You my queen it must be you

Though your feathers are not true

But as Bright Shimmer grew older she also grew more beautiful until the fateful day when the mirrors answer changed, for Grenta was no longer the fairest and the mirror had to tell the truth. On that day, the mirror answered not "you" but "her".

When the queen asked the regular question the mirror stopped, thought a little, and responded:

Bright Shimmer of golden feathers, she

Has much fairer feathers than thee

Grenta raged and threatened but the mirror had to tell the truth, and still responded that it was Bright Shimmer.

Eventually Grenta's rage cooled down and she began to scheme.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Grenta's plot was formed and she called the best woodpeckers in the land to her rooms. She interviewed them all, one at a time, and chose the most likely candidate. She gave him her orders and sent all the rest to return to their normal lives, but one to carry out the orders she had given him.

That day was one of Bright Shimmer's planned flying days, when she flew high over the countryside with her guards searching for birds to bring to safety.

"There!" exclaimed a woodpecker as he swiveled his head to get a better look, "I saw something down there in that thicket!"

Bright Shimmer looked too and replied, "Fan out and search around it. You," she indicated the woodpecker who had spotted something, "Come with me." She swooped down towards the thicket, the light flashing on her golden feathers.

When Bright Shimmer reached the thicket, she flared her wings and started looking for telltale signs of birds. The woodpecker followed quietly behind and looked at her hard for a second.

"I'm supposed to kill you." He said after a moment's pause.

Bright Shimmer looked up, startled, "What?!"

"The new queen ordered me to get you alone, and kill you, and bring one of your feathers to her." He rushed on, "She told me that she would kill me if I didn't, and she showed me that she had put an illusion on herself and that she was actually a vulture. I told her I would so that I could tell you this, you need to run away or she will find some other way to kill you!"

Bright Shimmer looked him in the eyes for a second and then slowly bent down and pulled off a feather. "Here." She proffered the feather.

The woodpecker, looking slightly stressed and slightly startled, took the feather, and, thanking her and entreating her to hide herself, slowly fluttered off. Bright Shimmer watched him go and then quickly slipped away to find somewhere to hide.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer - I don't own Disney (hah) and there is an adapted Disney song in this chapter

After half a day of searching Bright Shimmer finally found an out-of-the-way kingfisher's burrow. She knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. After a few minutes of no answer, she turned around to leave and heard the faint hint of a song coming from afar of to her right. She turned around again and began following the song. As she got nearer, she began to decipher the words of the song

Oh, dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig the whole day through!

cause dig dig dig dig dig dig dig is what we like to do!

in a mine, in a tree, in a hole…

in a mine or a tree or a hole!

Oh, dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig the whole day through!...

She slowly peeked her head around a bush and beheld the most curious sight she'd ever seen. Seven brown tails were sticking out of a hole. She quickly realized that they were the kingfishers that lived in the burrow she had found, and, as far as she could tell, they were digging! They were pecking worms out of the hole and stacking them in a pile next to each one. She watched in wonder for a little, until she realized that there were now six kingfishers. One of them was missing! She thought about this for a second and then realized that there was now only five! She stared hard at the remaining five and watched one kingfisher stop working, gather up his pile of worms, stuff them in a sack from a pile of them she had noticed earlier, say something to the others and, with a bound and a spring, jump into the air and flutter off. She began inching closer inch by inch, when suddenly from behind her she heard a voice say loudly,

"What do you think you're doing?"

Bright Shimmer whirled around to find one of the kingfishers standing right behind her.

"I… I was just looking." She stammered.

The kingfisher paused and looked at her and his face softened.

"Yes." He corrected himself quietly, "I believe you were only looking"

"excuse me but I was wondering," Bright Shimmer asked, suddenly getting an idea, "Could I come and live with you? I could help with the housework and everything."

"well…" The kingfisher hesitated, "We really need a helper, but I would have to ask my brothers."

They started soaring toward the burrow she had seen, while she questioned the kingfisher about his brothers.

"There are seven of us" he replied in answer to her question, "I'm Sunday. And my brothers are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday"

"Those are… interesting names." Bright Shimmer said, at the same time trying to think of a false name she could give him just in case he worked for her stepmother, "my name is stone dust, though so I guess I can't judge."

Sunday laughed and said, "I think your name is quite normal compared to ours."

Bright Shimmer smiled and opened her beak to reply but before she could say anything they reached the burrow, and she saw that all the kingfishers that had been digging were now at the burrow.

"Sunday, You're back!" Bright Shimmer looked around to find the source of the voice and saw the smallest of the kingfishers just as he stepped into the light. His brown feathers burst blue and his burnt orange underbelly exploded to a Bright yellow that almost seemed to glow. "And it looks as if you've brought someone with you! Who is this?" he stopped and looked questioningly at Sunday.

Before answering, Sunday leaned toward her and whispered, "That's Saturday, he's the youngest and always happy" Then he straightened up and announced, "This is Stone Dust. She was kicked out of her home and was wondering if we could take her in."

His announcement was received by a shocked silence. All of the kingfishers stared at him in shock. Then there was a loud droning noise that sounded almost like a pig snorting. Bright Shimmer looked around, startled, and everyone else started laughing uproariously. On the far right of the line of birds the second oldest kingfisher had fallen asleep and was snoring loud enough to wake the dead.

Sunday sighed. "Monday wake up!" he shouted at the bird.

The sleeping one, apparently Monday, started slightly and mumble, "I agree with Sunday." Then went back to sleep.

All the others laughed again and it took a while for them all to calm down, but when they eventually did Sunday called a vote.

"All those in favor of Stone Dust coming to live with us raise your wing." He called loudly.

Every bird raised a wing. Even Monday who had apparently waken up by then raised his wing, although he did so after everyone else.

Sunday looked at them all and nodded. "Motion passed." He announced, then added softly to Bright Shimmer, "And Welcome. Bright Shimmer."

Bright Shimmer looked at him in astonishment, "How…"

"I'm smarter than I look." He murmured then added with a twinkle in his eye, "It's okay, I don't think anyone noticed but me."


	5. Chapter 5

meanwhile, at the castle the queen was asking her mirror the usual question:

Mirror mirror on the wall

Tell me now or you shall fall,

Whose feathers' fairest of them all.

But again her mirror responded:

Bright Shimmer of golden feathers, she,

Has much fairer feathers than thee

The queen was furious at Bright Shimmer and at the wood pecker she had sent to kill her, But this time it was cold rage and the queen knew what to do with cold rage. She began mixing potions. One was a potion that made things it touched irresistible, one was a potion that could create an illusion on whoever drank it, and the last one was a potion of animation.


	6. Chapter 6

After three months of living with the kingfishers, Bright Shimmer could now tell them apart and knew all their quirks. She knew that Saturday was always happy and found the bright side in everyone and that Monday was most often asleep. The kingfishers always left the house at seven thirty A.M. on the dot and came straggling back around eight o'clock P.M. with bags full of worms and beetles. It then became Bright Shimmer's job to take these to the nearby market the next day. When she finished that she tidied up the burrow and did other nestkeeping tasks.

One day she was reinforcing the mud tunnel with bark and thinking how silly it was to have a mud nest in the ground instead of a respectable one of twigs in the trees, when suddenly she heard an old woman's voice calling from the door. She set her stack of bark down and made her way to the door. When she got there, she saw a quail who was so old that her crest was drooping.

"Hello." Said the quail in a cracking voice, "I've heard talk in the village that the kingfishers who live here have a lovely young bird staying with them, and I was wondering if she would be interested in some lovely vines to brighten up the house?" she held up a basket full to the brim with high-quality house making vines.

"Oh!" Bright Shimmer exclaimed, "Why, I was just now thinking that this place needed a touchup. I would just love a bunch of vines to brighten it up. What would you like in return?"

"Oh, you needn't give me anything." The elderly quail assured her, "I take joy in the fact that my gift was so happily accepted."

So Bright Shimmer accepted the gift and the quail went on her way satisfied that her enchanted vines were adequately planted. When the evil queen reached the village, for it was she in disguise, she took another potion that would disintegrate her quail guise and returned to the castle.

Bright Shimmer, meanwhile, had decided to set the vines aside until she was done cleaning, but she just couldn't keep her eyes off the small bundle of plants.

Eventually, the temptation got to strong and Bright Shimmer went and picked up the bundle. Almost immediately the vines started moving on their own and attacked her! She screeched for help but there was no one nearby to help her, and soon the vines overwhelmed her and wrapped her up like a spider web.

When the kingfishers came home they found her lying on the ground covered in vines. They almost didn't know it was her inside the cocoon. They immediately started unwrapping her, but before they could remove a single vine the vines all reanimated and attacked them. There were so many of them, however, that the bundle of vines didn't have a chance and they soon fought it off and burned all the attack vines. When they finally finished that, Bright Shimmer was waking up from her struggle with the vines, and all the kingfishers crowded around her to see how she was. She recovered quickly and they went about their daily chores as normal.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day the kingfishers warned her to be cautious of strangers.

They all called goodbye as they left and Bright Shimmer started to do the housework firmly thinking that she would not open the door of the burrow to anyone.

Around the middle of the day, there was a knock on the door. Bright Shimmer stalked quietly to the door and looked through the peephole. She saw a young raven looking back at her.

"Hello," said the raven "I was wondering if anyone here would like a lovely feather brush?" she held up a basket, which Bright Shimmer could see was filled with something shiny and sparkly.

Like all crested birds, Bright Shimmer couldn't resist shiny things, so she opened the door to the raven.

The raven took something out of the basket and held it up, "Maybe a beautiful beakbrush?" she grabbed another thing and held it up, "or possibly this bejeweled feather comb?"

Bright Shimmer saw the comb and immediately the spell that made it irresistible came into effect and she had to have it, so she bought the comb and bid the raven farewell. As soon as the raven left, Bright Shimmer immediately started arranging her feathers with her new brush, but as soon as she put it in her feathers the poison on it took effect and she fainted.

The raven who, as you have probably guessed, was the evil queen, was waiting outside the door to find out whether her poison would work, but when she heard the thump of Bright Shimmer falling she knew it had worked. She quietly stepped away from the burrow and took off to celebrate at her own castle.


	8. Chapter 8

As usual, the kingfishers all arrived at around eight o'clock, and when they did they found Bright Shimmer in front of the door with the comb still in her feathers. They immediately saw the source of the problem and decided to burn the comb, but they couldn't touch it without fainting. Monday even fell asleep without magic! They did eventually manage to get it out of Bright Shimmer's feathers and she awoke with a gasp.

"What happened?" she wondered, noticing that it was getting dark already.

"there is poison on that comb." Sunday informed her, "We removed it from your feathers and you woke up"

Bright Shimmer knew then that someone really wanted her gone.

The next day she thought of a plan to find out who it was and told it to Sunday first and then the rest of the kingfishers. They all agreed that it was a good plan and went on their way

Once again Bright Shimmer was on her own in the hut and it was getting to lunchtime when there came a knocking at the door of the burrow. She opened the door to see a middle-aged robin outside with a basket chock full of roses in her beak.

The robin set it down and said "Hello, would you like to buy a rose to brighten up your burrow? "she leaned down and picked up a beautiful rich red rose, "They're on a special sale! Buy four roses get a vase and another rose free!"

Bright Shimmer pretended to be interested, buying only one rose and putting it down as quickly as possible so it didn't prick her, but when the door closed she counted slowly to two hundred and very quietly opened the door. She saw the robin open her wings and take off so she too lifted into the air. She saw the robin reach into her satchel and pull out a beaker. The robin uncorked the beaker, made a face, and downed it, then the most surprising thing happened. The robin's red feathers slowly began turning black! Its head became bald, it's neck elongated, it's feathers became mated and bloody, and it's eyes became the cold dead eyes of the vulture. The vulture quickly chugged another potion that transformed it again. Feathers grew, turned black, straight, and glossy, the neck shortened and wingbeats became less frequent, but the eyes didn't change, and Bright Shimmer knew that her suspicions had been correct for there before her was her stepmother, still with the cold hard eyes of a vulture.


	9. Chapter 9

When Bright Shimmer returned to the burrow, the seven Kingfishers were already making their way home from the mine. She raced to the back door and pretended she had been there all along. Bright Shimmer had never told the kingfishers her real name or that she was a princess, so she didn't inform them of this new update, she just thought about it herself and eventually devised a plan.

Bright Shimmer had heard of the magic mirror the queen consulted every day and thought it would be the perfect target for a sneak attack. So that very day she told the kingfishers that she would be leaving them soon. They all beseeched her to stay but Bright Shimmer knew that this had to be done.

The next day Bright Shimmer waited until the kingfishers were gone, then she snuck out of the burrow and headed toward the castle. First, she went to her father's room to make sure he was OK. When she reached his room, her stepmother was there as well. She waited at the door and heard a few snippets of speech she heard Grenta assure him that if he obeyed her in everything it would all be OK. Bright Shimmer heard a flutter of wings and ducked back into the shadows as Grenta left the room. She made sure she was gone, then went in herself to see her father. He was sitting in the middle of the room staring absently at the wall. Bright Shimmer went up to him. He was muttering something about doing what she said and no more child. Bright Shimmer tried to get his attention but he just stood there, unmoving. She finally realized that Grenta had hypnotized him, so she gave up for now and started making her way to the queen's tower.

She finally reached the queens tower and opened the door. When she stepped inside she was greeted by the most peculiar scene she had ever seen. Shelves covered in bottles lined the room. Bundles of herbs hang from the ceiling. And on the far wall was a very ornate, ash wood, mirror.


	10. Chapter 10

Bright Shimmer slowly walked towards the mirror and stood in front of it. She finally figured out why no one recognized her. She looked nothing like herself. Her feathers were so dirty they looked grey and her beak was chipped. She was thinner from her hard work and meager food, and, most changing of all, she no longer had a bearing of royalty.

She was interrupted in her musings by a sound of scratching on stone. Someone was coming! She dove behind a stack of spell books and waited. The door opened and in came Grenta. The black bird locked the door with magic and let her disguise fall. Bright Shimmer barely stopped a gasp from escaping. Although she had already seen it, it still surprised her when a beautiful Eagle turned into the disgusting buzzard.

Grenta stepped up to the mirror and said in her scratchy voice, "Mirror, mirror on the wall tell me now or you shall fall, who's feather's fairest of them all."

To Bright Shimmer's surprise, the mirror responded,

Bright Shimmer of golden feathers, she

Has much fairer feathers than thee

The Queen let out a guttural scream. "Where is she, mirror! Tell me where she is!"

The mirror once again responded in verse,

"She is near to thee but also far

farther than the farthest star"

Bright Shimmer jumped out of her reverie and into motion. She looked around her for something that could be useful. She saw a lot of books some of which she could see the titles of. Death and its wonders, pentagrams and how to summon demons, magic mirrors, making and destroying them, poisons potions and brews, Hypnotism, mind control and how to reverse it. Her attention caught on the last one and she made her way towards it. Meanwhile, Grenta was trying to figure out the riddle muttering under her breath about stars.

Bright Shimmer heard "farthest, but…. many points…...five, six? …just fire? How can…near to…both.?" She had no idea what this meant but something about points rang a bell, she just couldn't figure out why.

Bright Shimer continued her slow crawl towards the book about hypnotism. When she finally got to it she snatched it and considered what to do next. She needed to get out of the tower room to use the book but Grenta was blocking the door and would surely see her if she made a run for it, so Bright Shimer used the oldest trick in the book and threw a rock. There was gravel all over the floor so when her rock hit the ground on the other side of the room it made a noise that sounded extraordinarily loud compared to the quiet in the room before. Grenta whirled around to see what it was and Bright Shimmer quietly slipped away with the book tucked under her wing.


	11. Chapter 11

When Bright Shimmer returned to her father's room with the book still safely under her wing, she discovered him in the same position as before, just sitting staring at the wall. She looked in the book to see how to undo hypnotism.

"Oftentimes it is required that the one seeking to release the hypnotized must use the same phrasing and pronunciation as the one who induced it. at other times a simple gesture, perhaps a snap of the talons or click of the beak, could suffice. With very strong cases it is required that the hypnotized be looking at or in possession of the focus point for the hypnosis"

Well that means she needed to find the correct words to undo the hypnotism, and maybe even find a specific object, and that would be very difficult indeed. Bright Shimer tried snapping her talons and clicking her beak but her stepmother must have set a word to it, and Bright Shimmer eventually had to give up and sneak away once again.


	12. Chapter 12

Bright Shimmer had an idea. She had noticed that Grenta's mirror had known where she was without even looking, so she thought it might know other things, such as the word to break her father's hypnotism.

She made her way, very carefully, to the queen's tower room once again, and when she got there she was glad, for Grenta was nowhere to be seen, and Bright Shimmer surmised that she had left to do other, most likely wicked, things.

Bright Shimmer entered the tower room and stood before the mirror. She looked in it and once again saw her own reflection. She really didn't want to see how she looked right now so she went right to the question.

"mirror mirror on the wall how can I unhypnotize my father?

The mirror responded in verse

You activate me with a rhyme

To use a magic mirror

But when my kin seek answers

Everything is clearer

There was a pause as the mirror searched for the answer to her question, then finally:

You need your mother's favorite flower in this case a bluebell

You give it to your father first and then right after

You'll free your father from this spell

With, "Pure and simple laughter"

Bright Shimmer pondered this. The second stanza was clear, she had to pick a bluebell and show it to her father then there had to be laughter around him. The first stanza, however, was more confusing. She had obviously messed up in asking without a rhyme, but what was that about her kin? She was pretty sure she didn't have any pieces of glass in her family but you never know. She turned around to ask the mirror what it meant but when she saw her reflection in the mirror she stopped. Behind her was her mother, Tenya, standing in the mirror. Bright Shimmer whirled around but there was no one behind her. She looked back in the mirror and there was Tenya standing behind her. She was staring at the reflection of her and her mother in the mirror when she saw, in the mirror, the handle of the door behind her jiggling, and knew that it was being opened. Bright Shimmer dove for cover behind a rack full of potion ingredients and waited for whoever it was to come in.


	13. Chapter 13

The door opened and in stepped the queen's personal cook followed by the queen herself and one of the queen's guards. The queen looked around the room for a second, probably looking for an intruder, then nodded to the other two birds. Their disguises dropped and, where before there had been a raven, a purple martin, and a burly falcon, there was now a vulture, a butcher bird, and a young mimic.

Bright Shimmer barely stifled a gasp. The butcher bird and mimic were famous outlaws known as the bloody crow and stalker. She shuffled closer to catch what they were saying and just barely managed not to trip on a stack of books. She looked up quickly to see if her scuffle had been heard, but the three birds were still conversing and Bright Shimmer could finally hear what they were saying.

"…. finally have the old goose under my spell." Grenta was saying to the others, "His resistance was stronger than most, but he now obeys my every word."

She must mean my father. Bright Shimmer realized. Then, I know she did hypnotize him! And now I know what to do about it! She was ready to rush out then, but those who had been blocking the doorway were, of course, still there, so she had to wait while they continued talking.

"Great!" she heard the butcher bird exclaim, "we have the king hypnotized, the princess lost in the woods, and the queen trapped in the mirror. Now, all we have to do is make the king name you heir and we can kill him and claim the throne!

The all agreed and began a conversation about what they would do when they claimed power, but Bright Shimmer wasn't listening she was still caught on one thing the butcher bird said "the queen trapped in the mirror" she put it together with the thing the mirror herself said "but when my kin seek answers…" Bright Shimmer put two and two together and concluded that her mother was inside the mirror, or possibly was the mirror. Bright Shimmer had to act quickly.


	14. Chapter 14

The three villains had moved away from the door and Bright Shimmer could finally escape. She crept out of the room and began a swift flight out of the castle and into the gardens where she found a single bluebell that hadn't been cleared out after her mother's supposed death. She took the flower in her beak and flew through the window of her father's room. He was still sitting in the same position staring at the wall. She walked up to him and passed the bluebell to him. He accepted it easily and she was surprised, for that was the first time she had seen him move since she left. She remembered that the mirror said he would wake from his spell with laughter, so she started thinking of ways to make either her or her father laugh. She told jokes looked at funny pictures, she did everything she could think of. But she couldn't get her or king Daren to laugh. She stopped and started thinking. She mumbled the words of the poem that the mirror had recounted.

Bright Shimmer heard a noise behind her and whirled around. Behind her, Daren had stood up and was looking around.

She realized that she didn't need laughter she needed to say, "Pure and simple laughter." That was the key phrase! And it had worked! Her father was standing lucidly in front of her, and now he was speaking, as if to the air.

"Why, I have the most peculiar feeling." He pondered, still looking around, "like…" he got no further for right at that moment Grenta and her two colleagues burst through the door.


	15. Chapter 15

Bright Shimmer flitted out of the room as soon as she heard the door handle move, so the false queen didn't see her zip around the castle and head back into the queen's tower. She had gone to get her mother out of the mirror. Bright Shimmer, along with everyone else in the castle, knew that her mother was a strong fighter and a powerful magician and that she was their only hope to defeat Grenta's band. She stood in front of the mirror and said,

Mirror mirror of ash tree

How can I set my mother free

There was a blinding flash like something bright being reflected off the mirror, then it was gone and where the mirror had been stood queen Tenya, her silver feathers shining and bright.

"All you had to do was ask." She replied.

All Bright Shimmer wanted to do then was have a long conversation with her mom but she remembered her father and told her hurriedly, "Mother we need your help! Grenta is going to kill Father and take over the kingdom! You're the only one that can stop her!"

Tenya's eyes widened and she stared at Bright Shimmer then she shook herself and started down the corridor, flying so fast that Bright Shimmer almost couldn't keep up.


	16. Chapter 16

They reached Daren's room just in time. Grenta and her cronies were backing him into a corner when Tenya said a few words under her breath and the butcher bird and mimic were each surrounded by a glowing golden cage. There was one around Grenta for a second but then a flash of black energy shattered it into pieces like broken glass. Grenta turned and faced Tenya, the rage all too obvious on her face.

"YOU!" she shouted, "I thought I locked you in a mirror!"

"You did" Tenya responded calmly, "But I got out with some help from my daughter" she gestured toward Bright Shimmer.

"No!" Grenta roared "No! I banished her! No one could break that spell but me! You can't just….." there was a great THWOK noise and she cut off abruptly. King Daren stood behind her with a thick stick still clutched in his talon.

"I hope you don't mind, she was really starting to annoy me." He dropped the stick and called for the guards, "Take these birds away and lock them in an anti-magic cell in the dungeon." The guards complied and they were alone in the room together for the first time in two months. They all smiled at each other and Daren said, "Well I see you found your mother Brighty. I guess we should announce that she's back."

THE END


End file.
